Anthony's Key Resort With 1 Year Old

[Gar]

My wife and I are trying to find a dive location / resort that is reasonably suitable to travel to w/ our 1 year old. We are considering Anthony's Key Resort. We are not concerned with availability of babysitters, as we will take turns diving, but are interested in opinions on the resort relative to having a 1 year old there. Open to thoughts on Anthony’s Key or other location suggestions.

 

[Doc]

My wife and I are trying to find a dive location / resort

On Roatan, then, right?

that is reasonably suitable to travel to w/ our 1 year old.

Maybe throw us a better definition of what you mean by that.

We are considering Anthony's Key Resort.

It would be similar at any AI resort on Roatan.

We are not concerned with availability of babysitters, as we will take turns diving,

As an aside, any AI and pretty much so everywhere else, you could retain competent local assistance as to child care. Most AI's have a turn-key operation, just ask.

but are interested in opinions on the resort relative to having a 1 year old there.

A one year old will not be noticed. AKR has some unique challenges in this regard, however. Most of the rooms require a short boat ride to get to the main resort where you will find all guest services as well as food and beverage. The climb up to the restauarant is quite a hump up the hillside steps, fabled in this resort's own trivia contest that the bartenders will drill the guests upon.

Open to thoughts on Anthony’s Key or other location suggestions.

All places would be about the same, so it would seem. Take into account that there is virtually no medical assistance of any sort, and the nearest life-flight (once it gets there) is still 2+ hours to Houston. Do not imagine for a moment that you are on Cayman. The bugs (sand fleas) can be horrific, but manageable if you are consistent and unfailing in your prophylaxis.

People do this all the time, and as Herself always points out, "Kids are portable"

 

[Gar]

Roatanman,
Thanks for the comments. They are very helpful and exactly what I was looking for. Some responses:

- We are open to suggestions anywhere in the Caribbean.Does not have to be AI, just 1 yr old friendly.
- I intentionally did not input my definition of reasonable, I wanted to get others open opinions (although I did consider it).
- One year old "not being noticed" VERY HELPFUL. Since we have not been there we wanted to ensure that we would not be infringing in anyway on some other divers relaxing vacation. We want to be mindful that not everyone loves a crying baby . We're lucky, as we don't have that issue too much.
- "Kids are portable" ours was on Andros at Small Hope in July and Cozumel for Labor Day (Mom had to take 14 months off of diving and needed a lot of bottom time )

Thanks again. Great comments!!

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

We were there in August and RoatanMan brought up some good points. If you stay on the Key you have to take a small boat to and from the main part of the resort where the food is. It's only a couple minutes on the boat but something to think about it you have to carry a child around. The main part of the resort has a lot of somewhat steep wooden stairs to climb to get to dinner. It was a safe as it could be but tiresome. they do have a nice pool and snack bar on the key though and there were other small children there and they really didn't bother anyone. They also have the dolphins which you take the same small boat over to their key and it was fun to just watch them from the dock. The bugs could be an issue. They weren't as bad as I thought they would be, even still we were constantly putting stuff on and had a good amount of bites.

So far I've been to Cozumel (which would be good but you said you've already been), Roatan and Grand Cayman which I think could fit your bill. We enjoyed the diving and there are a pretty good amount of kid things to do (butterfly garden, lots of places with nice pools to name a couple). You don't really have to worry about bugs there and they have medical facilities.

 

[DeputyDan]

I would look at Buddy Dive in Bonarie over Roatan (for this situation)

No hills to climb - insects usually not an issue - 24/7 diving for the not care giver partner.

Take out from the restaurants if the kid is a problme and kitchens in the units where you can fix lunch - breakfast included

 

[pediatron]

Hi. We were at Anthony's Key with my two children age 6 and 8 at the time. They had a great time, but your one year old is too young to get much out of the dolphins or other great activities for kids. I'm not really sure whether I should mention this without sounding a bit of an alarmist, but your child is very young. Of the four of us at the resort, my husband and both my 2 children ended up with meningo-encephalitis (the 6 year old while we were there, the other 2 withing a few days of arriving home). Anthony's said they didn't have any other cases reported, but I am a bit nervous about going back. (By the way everyone is ok now, but 2 were hospitalized when we got back). We really did have a fabulous time and I am thinking about going back, but still a bit nervous. If I had a one year old, I would want to know this.